Homegrown Forum Set to Tackle Energy Conservation for Future

By IAN FEIN

The total energy bill for Martha's Vineyard this year
will approach $65 million, according to a study conducted by an
energy consultant this winter.

And although more solar roofs are appearing on the Island
landscape, the consultant found that less than one-tenth of one per
cent of the Vineyard's energy is produced on the Island. The rest
comes from the mainland, either by boat or underwater cable.

With the economic and environmental costs of fossil fuels
soaring, some Vineyard residents are looking to narrow that gap.

Energy conservation will be the topic in an upcoming forum
set for May 7 as part of the third annual Energy Day. The forum will
be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury. The
event is co-sponsored by Cape Light Compact, the Martha's Vineyard
Commission and the Vineyard Energy Project - an Island nonprofit that
formed two years ago to encourage sustainable energy choices on the
Vineyard and inspire other communities to do the same.

"It's quite clear that something is going to happen - and
either we plan for it and do something forward thinking or wait to
see what happens," said Kate Warner, founder of the organization.
"I'd rather us be prepared."

The Vineyard Energy Project this spring authored a nonbinding
energy resolution to work toward becoming a Renewable Energy Island.
The resolution passed at all five annual town meetings this month,
and will go before Aquinnah voters on May 10.

To develop a formal plan to find ways to work toward that
goal, the Vineyard Energy Project last fall hired Christine Donovan,
an energy planner from Stowe, Vt.

"We didn't feel we had the expertise to determine what our
best energy resources are and what the most cost effective projects
would be," Ms. Warner said. "We needed help."

Ms. Donovan is writing an energy action plan, due this
summer, that will determine specific ways the Island can increase its
energy sustainability within the next 10 years. She spent the winter
studying the Vineyard's energy resources with a team of consultants,
and will present some of her findings - along with a draft of the
plan - at the May 7 forum.

In an attempt to get feedback from the Vineyard community
before the final plan is inked, Ms. Donovan will lead a discussion
with the audience about the specific ideas and proposed projects.

Transportation is one of the areas Ms. Donovan studied, and
she found that it accounts for almost half of the Island's total
energy use. The plan will address ways the Vineyard can cut down its
transportation energy costs, possibly by encouraging more car-sharing
programs or bicycle routes. Ms. Donovan will also discuss using more
biodiesel fuel for the Island buses, trucks and ferries, and possibly
turning construction debris or parts of the state forest into a
sustainable source of biomass.

Other energy sources identified in the plan include solar and
wind power - possibly by installing more small turbines, like the one
at South Mountain Company, at farms across the Island. Ms. Donovan
will also recommend that the Vineyard adopt policies to make Island
homes and buildings more energy efficient.

Ms. Warner admits that she does not know what the plan will
look like, or how it would be enacted or enforced, if at all. She
pointed to Aspen, Colo. - another seasonal community with lots of
development and large homes - where progressive local energy
initiatives have taken hold.

Four years ago Aspen enacted stricter green building codes
and developed a renewable energy mitigation program, where property
owners with large homes or outdoor hot tubs are required to either
install renewable energy systems in their homes or pay an extra tax
into an energy fund that promotes other sustainable projects in town.
The fund has already raised $3 million over the last four years.

Ms. Warner hopes that the Vineyard might follow Aspen's lead.
As high-profile tourist destinations with many seasonal residents,
both places have the ability to serve as a model for the rest of the
country.

Randy Udall, the director of a nonprofit energy group in the
Colorado valley, said the Aspen experiment is working.

"The steps Aspen has taken in the last 10 years have had much
broader outcomes than we initially envisioned," he said in a brief
telephone interview this week. "The nation has been on an energy
holiday for many years, and we want to build a consensus to begin
moving in a more self-sustaining direction. America is still trying
to bring gas in from around the world through mega projects, but I'm
intrigued by our opportunity to do things more locally."

Mr. Udall, whose father Maurice was a U.S. congressman for 30
years and one-time presidential candidate, said the political
momentum needed to make energy changes on the local level is within
reach. The building code changes in Aspen passed unanimously.

"If a community has a vision of where it wants to go, it's
possible to get the political will to go there," Mr. Udall said.

Following Ms. Donovan's presentation at the forum, Cape and
Islands Sen. Rob O'Leary will discuss legislative measures to enact
on either the local or state levels to promote energy sustainability.

Senator O'Leary filed an energy efficiency bill last year,
which he hopes will make it through the state legislature this
summer. If approved, the bill would require that home and commercial
appliances meet certain efficiency standards before they are made
available in Massachusetts. Mr. O'Leary estimated the bill would save
consumers $1.9 billion over the next 20 years and reduce the state's
needs for electricity.

One of the most outspoken state senators against the offshore
wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, Mr. O'Leary did not deny the
irony surrounding his role as a key speaker at a renewable energy
forum.

"Of course there's a certain irony, but my opposition to the
wind farm is because I think it will have an enormous impact and a
modest benefit," he said. "Whereas things like this bill will have a
big impact and will happen years sooner than the wind farm - even in
a best-case scenario - with a much, much, much smaller public cost at
any level."